“I forgot how fun sneaking around is when you’re not packing eight guns”
Sneaking around a classic in SPLINTER CELL
SPLINTER CELL IS WAY MORE FUN WHEN I’M PASSING BY GUARDS UNNOTICED
Imiss when stealth games were dark. Like literally dark, as in the only way to see where you’re going is to flip on a light switch or slip on some night vision goggles. I realized how under-appreciated darkness is recently, during my first go at the original Splinter Cell.
And wow, I’m glad to finally be here. It took me a while to acclimate to its hardline ‘every guard alerted at once’ stealth rules and nonexistent checkpoints, but once I learned to hammer F5 to save constantly, Splinter Cell’s movement puzzles finally clicked and I started to feel cooler as Sam Fisher than I ever have as Solid Snake or Corvo Attano. And I think the game’s shadows have everything to do with it.
Decades later, the use of darkness is still a stroke of genius. When Sam saunters into a shadow, he almost completely disappears. Shadows get so dark that I can actually believe a guard could breeze right by Sam without knowing he’s there. I can barely see him, and I’m the one controlling him!
SHADOW WARRIOR
It’s so simple, but Splinter Cell’s shadows fly in the face of modern stealth games where a level set in the middle of the night is still bright enough to see perfectly.
In fact, not seeing is core to the challenge of the game. Guards are just as invisible as Sam in darkness, and you can’t tag them through walls like in the later games. The game forces you to slip on the night-vision goggles to keep track of surroundings, but even this isn’t a perfect view. The green filter washes out the contrast of shadows on the ground, making it easy to accidentally step out of safety and get spotted.
I forgot how fun sneaking around is when you’re not packing eight guns that can instakill everyone around you. Instead, you have two guns that are better at turning off lights than turning off humans. The silenced pistol you start the game with is so bad, in fact, that it’s common to aim straight at an enemy head and miss completely, kicking off a firefight that either ends in a flurry of random bullets or, more commonly, hitting F8 to reload to where it all went wrong.
That’s OK though, because
Splinter Cell is way more fun when I’m passing by guards completely unnoticed or listening to them talk about the weather in a split-leg foothold above them. Having the option to tear through modern stealth games guns blazing is nice, but Splinter Cell is one of the only series that really puts your back against a wall. I really hope Ubisoft’s upcoming remake doesn’t change up this formula too much. Splinter Cell would suddenly be a very different game if Sam could fight off three dudes at once or, god forbid, the guns were actually good.